The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said fares for the Abuja-Kaduna rail line may increase following the inauguration of 10 new luxury coaches.
Ameachi was fielding questions from State House correspondents, after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, yesterday.
According to him, commuters have already agreed that the Abuja to Kaduna fare is a bit cheap.
The minister said the coaches would be inaugurated tomorrow.
His words: “The President is pleased with the arrangement because pressure from passengers will reduce. When demand outstrips supply, you see all sorts of attempts to cheat the passengers.
“The passengers also agree that the cost of transportation to Kaduna via the railway is a bit cheap. So, there will be a need to increase the price and then there will be more comfort. More comfort in the sense that when you have excess seats, multiplied by the number of passengers that will come, then anybody that wants to racketeer will have to eat the tickets himself.”
Amaechi said the new coaches would bring the total number of coaches to 14 on the Kaduna-Abuja route. He added that one of the locomotives will be dedicated to direct trip from Kaduna to Abuja non-stop (about 1hr:15mins or 1hr:20 minutes non-stop).